Tokyo Disney (Next Week)

Looks like next week I have the opportunity to spend 3 or 4 days (my choice) at Tokyo Disney. I am going to be staying at the military Hotel in Tokyo and taking the train to Disney every morning, and back at night.

Does anyone have any experience or advice that they would like to share?

It sounds like Tokyo Disneyland will be open, but possibly not DisneySeas--it's scheduled to open before the end of the month though, so keep your fingers crossed, because that's possibly the most beautiful Disney Park ever.

The maps and schedules are in Japanese, but if you ask they have English versions (unless you read Japanese, in which case it's moot.) Sometimes the Japanese versions are more detailed however, so it doesn't hurt to get both.

At TDL, possibly the biggest draw is the Winnie the Pooh ride, so that might be a good choice for your rope-drop FP dash.

The merchandise isn't as generic or ubiquitous as in the states--if you see something you like, don't count on seeing it again on Main St, say, on the way out. Also, don't wait until park closing to do your shopping, because everything closes at or before park closing. Japanese people don't seem to wear t-shirts all that much, so there often aren't that many to find. What you do find is a plethora of shops selling decorated tins of cookies/candies that people buy by the bagloads to fulfill their many gift-giving obligations. Also cell-phone charms.

The passes are a little odd--if you buy a multi-day pass, you have to specifically designate which park you're going to for each of the first 2 days. After that, for the next 2 days you can park hop. What sucks is if you need an extra day--they don't sell more than 4 days, so then you have to buy an individual ticket with which you can't park hop again.

A lot of the rides/shows that have no easily recognizable basis have electronic devices with subtitles that you can request from the CMs while you wait in line.

If you find that you don't understand the backstory on a given attraction, you can ask at customer relations for "story papers" which are illustrated pamphlets describing some of the details.

Try to catch the shows and parades--the production values for them are usually much higher than in the US. Some are so popular that you basically have to enter an electronic lottery to get a seat, so it's good to decide if you need to do that earlier than later.

If you like popcorn at all, you might as well get a bucket--it's hideously expensive, but the refills are cheaper and the buckets are highly regarded for souvenirs, being completely different in design at almost every cart that offers them. It's a big deal to try as many flavors as possible, such as chocolate, pepper, strawberry, honey, and curry.

Enjoy. It's not so much that the Disneyland there is totally different from the MK...it's that so much of the little unpleasantnesses you experience going to the US parks is eliminated...